DOLOG 




Class 







COPYRIGHT DEPOSni 




DE LITXE 

A TEXT BOOK 

OF THE 

LAND SITUATION 



INDEX 



Page 

47 
10 
51 
23 
67 



Alfalfa 

Autos, who owned by 

Beef Cattle 

Bought Right and Sold Right. 

Cabbage 

Canning 55 

Cheese Factories and Creameries 38 

Churches 12 

Clearing not difficult 27 

Climate 31-35 

Clover 42-45 

Co-operation 77 

Corn 62-63 

Credit 77 

Dairying 46-49 

Experiment Farm 71 

Feeding the World 77 

Fishing 74-75 

Foreword 3 

Free from Frost Damage 35 

Fruits 55-58 

Gateway to Prosperity 4 

Hogs 51-53 

Hunting 74-75 

Location 21 



Page 

Marinette County School of Agri- 
culture 70-71 

Markets 39 

New Settlers' Picnic 40-41 

Oats 69 

Our Sixty-thousand Acres 19 

Peas 53-55 

Pickles 67 

Population Makes Land Values.. 11 

Potatoes 63-67 

Poultry 71 

Prices 80 

Railroad Fare Refunded 80 

Reliability 79 

Roads 36-37 

Schools 73 

Sheep, a Good Opportunity 58-61 

Silos 73 

Soils 31 

State Funds to Clear Land 17 

Sugar Beets 67-69 



Terms 

Timber Lands Best 

Title to Our Lands 

Water Power 

W^heat 



Copyrighted 1918, by THE SKIDMORE LAND CO., all rights reserved. 



PUBLISHED BY 

THE SKIDMORE LAND CO. 

MARINETTE, WISCONSIN 



6^C;fra. 



^V^^' 



A 



AMERICA'S REAL CLOVER LAND. 
MARINETTE COUNTY, WISCONSIN 




JAN -7 1918 



©CU492a38 



^ FOREWORD 

^ 




ARINETTE COUNTY, WISCONSIN, has been our home 
for many years; it is our home now, and we expect to 
make it our home for years to come. We are vitally 
interested in the development of Marinette County, and 
we could have no possible object in misrepresenting 
conditions to you. We know if you are interested in 
land that you are a prospective neighbor, and we of 
course, realize that you would not decide to purchase land and 
locate in Marinette County if you found conditions different than 
we had represented them. 

Would we, as a matter of business, go to the expense of trying 
to interest you in something that you would not buy? Could we 
for years prosper in this business if the people to whom we are 
selling land were not making good? 

TRUTH GOVERNS ALL We have always made much of the 
" spirit and letter of the word ' ^ truth. " 

We have been guided by the spirit of this word in all previous 
editions of LANDOLOGY, and we shall not depart from that policy 
in this third DELUXE edition. That is why a large part of the 
story of farming in Marinette County is told in pictures. In weigh- 
ing in your mind the contents of this book, we ask you to remember 
one truth — the camera does not lie. Come and let us show you the 
farms and other scenes you will find in this book. 

THE DOOR OF SUCCESS IS MARKED 'PUSH." 

The person who is not ready and willing to push when the 
voice of opportunity comes, will never prosper greatly. The world 
always has been, and always will be ready to step aside and make 
way for the individual who has the courage to attempt to better 
his condition. We could wish no more worthy mission for this 
edition of Landology than that it may mean a more prosperous 
future for you. 

We aw^ait your visit. 

SKIDMORE LAND CO. 

GOOD FARM LANDS MARINETTE, WIS. 




The country's where I'd ruther be. 
Needn't fence it in fur me; 
Jes' the whole sky overhead, 
An' the whole earth underneath — 
Sort o' so a man kin breathe. 



—JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY 



LANDOLOGY 5 



FACE THE FUTURE. The past lies behind you. You cannot 

change it. What has been done, cannot 

be undone. Perhaps yon have not made the most of your oppor- 
tunities — many of us have not. 

But the future lies before us. It is an unwritten page on which 
we may write what we will. What we have not done, we can do. 

You are at the gateway — the future lies just beyond. It is a 
gateway to prosperity, limited only by the efforts which you will 
put forth to realize that prosperity. It is the gateway to land — 
the builder of more snug fortunes than any other form of invest- 
ment. To the average man good farm land is the best insurance 
for a good living, a modest fortune and a competence for his family. 

FEEDING THE WORLD. Never before in the history of mankind 

has the problem of feeding the world 

been so important. Nor has the world in the past ever held out 
such manifold reward to those who devote their efforts to food 
production. 

Today, no profession and no business offers such certainty of 
making a good living and reasonable profit as the profession of 
farming. 

Farming at this moment is in the early stages of a wonderful 
reorganization which is bringing to the oldest of man's occupations 
the recognition which is its due. More than that — it is bringing 
a reasonable return for labor expended — which is also the just due 
of the farmer. 

"Let come to each whate'er befall, the farmer still must feed 
them all." 

The world is being fed today only because we have advanced 
in the science of agriculture. Ages of cultivation and the experi- 
ments of thousands of unheard of Luther Burbanks have given us 
great progress in agriculture, but we must not forget that we are 
now approaching the limit of productive lands. The acreage has 
always been more limited than the general public has believed. 

ONLY ONE CROP OF LAND. The basis of the present farm 

' land situation is the fact that 

there is just so much land and there is no more being manufactured, 
and that our population is increasing at the rate of hundreds of 
thousands per year. 

The question before the people today is, shall we continue to be 
able to feed our increasing population? 

INCREASING POPULATION DEMANDS LAND. In addition 

to our in- 
creasing population and the continued large percentage which will 
demand lands, people in the larger centers are finding it more and 
more difficult to earn their bread and butter. 




A PAGE OF 

SCENES FROM 

THE SF50AND 

SiaS PER ACRE. 

FARMS YOU 

WILL see IN 

HARINETTE 

COUNTY 






^mM^^^m^^myimsma 




LANDOLOGY 



Our growth has been beyond precedent or parallel. Our 
increase in population, from 4,000,000 in 1790 to 110,000,000 in 1918 
is unequaled in the world's history. 

Marinette County, Wisconsin, with her splendidly productive 
low priced lands, not only offers the greatest farming opportunity 
today, but it is one of the few remaining localities where there are 
good new farm lands to take care of our ever-increasing population. 

NOT ENOUGH LAND F OR ALL. While our population has 

— " increased by 26 per cent, 

during the last decade, the area of improved farm land has 
increased less than five per cent, and a further increase of nine per 
cent, will include all the remaining land that at present can be 
cultivated. 

When our fathers were born (and many of them are still 
living), there were 17,000,000 people in the United States — in 
1840 — but the last count reveals a population of 110,000,000. 

Yes, we have multiplied — multiplied by 500 per cent, during 
the full time of one life, and before the young men of today are 
old men, at our present rate of increase, we will have a population 
of over 400,000,000 and when the children of today are in middle 
life this country, at our present rate of increase will have a popula- 
tion of more than 1,000,000,000. Where will the farm land be 
found to feed these 1,000,000,000 people, and what do you think 
will be the value of an acre of land which you could buy now for 
$25? 

In addition to the regular increase of the 110,000,000 — our 
present population — we must look forward to the care of our 
immigrants of the future. The last Government reports show 
10,000,000 immigrants for the past ten years; two and one-half 
times as many as for the preceding decade, and 75 per cent more 
than for 1880-1890. 

LARGE INCREASE IN VALUE OF FARM LAND. 

The last few years have witnessed a phenomenal increase in 
the value of farm lands. The chief reason for this is, of course, 
the increase in population, the fact that nearly all of the public 
land suitable for agricultural purposes has been taken up, and the 
natural tendency of people in congested centers to get back to 
the soil. 

There have been less than one billion minutes of time since the 
beginning of the Christian Era, and yet farm property in this 
country increased in value more than twenty- one billions in less 
than ten years, or in other words, more than 118 per cent ; but the 
number of farms increased only 11 per cent. 




TYPES OF 
HARlNETTECa 
FARH HOMES 




On every hand in Marinette County you see new buildings 
going up. You know that means prosperity and profits. 



NEWSETTLER MAK- 
ING GOOD START 




Farmers could not aflford these fine buildings if they were not mak- 
ing money. Are you making enough money to satisfy yourself? 



10 LANDOLOGY 



FA RMERS ARE AUTO OWNERS TODAY. The farmers are 

profiting by pres- 
ent conditions. This is their inning, and the increasingly high cost 
of living demands still more farmers all the time. The call is 
world-wide for more people to till the land, because their products 
are needed by a hungry hoard of consumers. 

For the first time in history the manufacturers, merchants, and 
professional men are all sending their sons to agricultural colleges. 
Farming has become a science because it has become profitable. As 
a class the farmers are the most prosperous citizens in the country 
today. Go wherever you will in the great farming states of 
America and make inquiry in the average towns of ten thousand 
population or less, and you will be told that it is a retired farmers' 
town. As a rule, you will find it true that a great many of the 
better citizens of the town who are living in the best homes are 
people who, in middle life, retired from their farms and are now 
living on their income. How many towns do you find made up 
mostly of well-to-do retired grocers, factory workers, dentists or 
doctors? None! 

Farmers today own over sixty per cent of the automobiles in 
the states of the great middle west. How many bookkeepers, bank 
clerks or factory workers own automobiles? Almost none! 

There is no reason to believe that prices as high as $400 per 
acre will not be reached in America before many years. Such 
prices for land are common in several European countries. 

GREATER ADVANCE COMING, ^ore and more the farmer 

is putting his work on a 

business basis, and in the same ratio the products of the farm are 
increasing in price. 

As long as there is a demand for gold, gold mines will continue 
to be valuable. Just so long as the price of farm products continues 
to rise, so will the price of farm lands go higher and higher. Just 
so long as our population continues to increase faster than the 
increase in the products of farming, just that long will the price of 
productive land continue to rise. 

WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS During the past year government 

^ — figures show that all land in 

America increased in value an average of $4.85 per acre. Wiscon- 
sin farm lands in the last decade rose from an average value of 
$34 per acre to over $60 per acre. 

That there will never be any more land on this earth than there 
is at the present time, and that our rapidly increasing population 
will sooner or later out-strip the productiveness of our soils and 
make all productive land practically invaluable is a philosophy so 
simple that a child can understand it. 



LANDOLOGY 11 



POPULATION MAKES LAND VALUES. More actual settlers 

are taking up their 

homes on the lands of Marinette County each year than are moving 
into any other five counties in Wisconsin. The population of 
Marinette County is increasing by leaps and bounds. Over 2500 
farmers from the states of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, 
Missouri, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Southern Wisconsin, have 
purchased land in Marinette County in recent years. You are well 
aware of the fact that it is the increase of population which has the 
most to do Avith the increase in land values. In this regard, no 
other upper Wisconsin county can make such a showing as 
Marinette. 

WHAT OTHE RS HAVE DONE, YOU CAN DO. Nine men in 

• every ten in 

any rural community who have accumulated more money than the 
average have done it by buying cheap land, and either developing 
it or holding it, and their success is generally in proportion to the 
quantity of land they bought. Look around you, and you will be 
surprised how many men have made their fortunes by this method. 
Go through any settled farming community and note the comfort- 
able homes, talk with the farmers who own them and ask how they 
obtained them. Most of them will tell you that they settled on the 
land when it was cheap and the land made a good income for them 
from the day they bought it. More people settling in the same 
locality brought about the increase in population which, without 
any other cause, was sufficient to multiply the value of the land 
until the owner was rich. 

OPPORTUNITIES OF TODAY. Recently the Saturday Evening 

Post said in an editorial, "The 

man who wants a farm that is already making good money must 
pay a round price. If he is willing to buy the raw material of a 
farm and build up the finished product he can still get fairly cheap 
land. In that direction some of the best agricultural speculations 
lie." 

Any farmer who takes good unimproved land and develops it 
can become rich in a few years. That is just what thousands are 
doing today and what you can do. 

ACT BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE. Your own judgment is suffi- 

cient to tell you that the 

facts we have set forth are the absolute truth. You who are work- 
ing for another should work for yourself. Ask any man sixty 
years of age who has worked in a city factory all his life what he 
would do if he could live his life over. Nine times out of ten he 
would tell you that he would have taken up a tract of land in his 
youth and would be worth from $10,000 to $20,000 today instead 
of being almost penniless in his old age. 




CHURCHES OFALL 
DENOMINATIONS WILL 
BE FOUND fN NW 
TOWNS AND SETTLE- 
HENTSfN MARINETTE 
COUNTY. 



i 

r 



4 i -^^^^ 



^m 
^1" 



-^"cr-'M 



f 





12 



LANDOLOGY 13 



You who are renting and developing another man's land should 
develop your own land. If you do not, the time will come for 
regrets — a time too late when you will envy the man who acted 
when you did not. You farmers who have had your opportunity in 
taking up cheap lands and becoming wealthy by their development, 
should see that your sons have the same chance. The land near 
home is probably beyond their reach; let them go where they can 
get low priced land that will increase in value rapidly. 

VALUE OF TIMBER LAND. Today, everyone realizes that 

timber land has a very rich soil,. 

and that it is wonderfully productive after the trees, stumps and 
brush are removed. 

Farm land can no longer be bought in the older settled parts 
of the country at prices which those just starting in their life's 
work can afford to pay. Such people must look elsewhere for 
land, just as their fathers and grandfathers did. It does not require 
exceptional reasoning to determine that any land which could 
produce such a wonderful crop of timber as did the land of Mari- 
nette County, Wisconsin, could not help but be extremely 
productive. In other words, timber land is the best land which 
can be had today at a reasonable price when the question of 
fertility, nearness to markets, schools, highways, churches, railroads 
and all other desirable features are taken into consideration. 

PROFIT BY THE EXPERIENCE OF OTHERS. Early in the 

-^ settlement of 

this country our forefathers learned the vital value of water, and 
the relative worthlessness of mere land without water. They 
settled first in the east where luxuriant natural growth bespoke 
productivity. Nearly every acre cultivated by these pioneers 
yielded large returns. Such was the land on which America's 
tremendous development was started and based — a land well 
watered by moderate rainfall and accumulated moisture, generally 
well drained by clear streams, and rendered fertile through the 
by-products of vegetable growth deposited from the timber during 
unnumbered years. 

This natural home for a people however, was sadly abused by 
short-sighted and greedy farming methods, which have exhausted 
the fertility of the soils of the east, but you can take up land in 
Marinette County of exactly the same character where there has 
been absolutely no depreciation of the original fertility of the land. 

LAND WITHOUT WATER WORTHLESS. Water and not land 

sets the limit of 

population and production. It has been estimated that if all our 
two billion acres in America had rainfall enough to be productive 



"Ht HIVfMOWS WON'T IHOID All THE 
TJHOTHY IN GRASSLAND, 
MARINETTE COUNTY, WIS. 



FOUR TONS 
OF HAY ON 
SLED AT 
S{6 PER TON, 





14 



LANDOLOGY 15 

the limit of sustaining capacity would be reached in the year 2200, 
this being based on our present rate of increase in population. The 
limit of our capacity for production lies not in the land, however, 
but in the supply of water on which all life depends, for without 
water there are no plants, no soil, no people, no lower animals. 
This means that the limit of sustaining capacity in this county must 
be reached long before the year 2200. 

P RAIRIE L AND S OR TIMBER LANDS. Practically all of 

the present $100 and 

$200 per acre land in Wisconsin was heavily timbered, and 
most of the early settlers of this state who located on this land are 
rich today, and yet none of them had the facilities for making 
money that are offered now. The early settler in Wisconsin had 
no market for the timber that remained on his land. He had none 
of the modern machinery, and did not know the modern and 
inexpensive methods of clearing land. The settler on timbered 
land today has a ready cash market for every stick of timber that 
he takes off his land, and instances are by no means rare in which 
farmers after building their houses, barns and fences have sold 
enough wood products from their land to pay for it. 

A LEADER IN FARMING. The only states which equal Wiscon- 

sin in production are those that use 

a large amount of commercial fertilizer, and states where irrigation 
must be practiced in order to get a suitable amount of moisture. 
The cost per acre for irrigation is often more than the entire cost 
per acre of the land in Marinette County. 

In Wisconsin, practically no commercial fertilizers are used or 
needed, and no irrigation is ever needed. The average annual 
rainfall of the state is thirty-three inches, and a study of the rainfall 
records of ten years would disclose the fact that a large part of this 
moisture falls shortly before and during the crop seasons. 

HOW SETTLERS MAKE MODEST FORTUNES. 

Take an average farmer who locates on 160 acres of new land 
in Marinette County. Suppose, for instance, that he makes only a 
good living during the first two years. By the end of that time he 
usually has a fairly well improved farm which is at least half 
cleared and which is easily worth from $50 to $80 per acre. When 
a farmer can buy a tract of land at from $20 to $30 per acre and 
'^an, with his own labor and only the returns from the money made 
off of the land, double the value of the land through improving it 
in the course of two years, he has not only made $4000 more or less 
on a 160 acre tract, but also owns a farm which will thereafter bring 
him in a good annual cash income and will steadily continue to 
increase in value. 




16 



LANDOLOGY 17 

STATE FUNDS TO CLEAR LAND. Wisconsin now has a l^w 

by which, under proper 
procedure, state funds may be drawn on for clearing land. Five 
acres each year for three years can be cleared on state funds, the 
money to be paid back in taxes over a period of twenty years. 
With the land that a settler can clear himself, and the acreage 
which can be cleared with state funds, any settler of moderate 
means can get his place well developed in a few years. 

MARINETTE COUNTY LAND INCREASING IN VALUE. 

Land in Marinette County has increased in value from 25% 
to 40% during the past year. This upward trend in land prices in 
Marinette County has continued for the past ten years, and prices 
are going up faster today than ever before. Land which you can 
buy at $25 per acre now will cost you $30 per acre by next season. 

THE VALUE OF FORESIGHT. The Skidmore Land Company, 

is recognized not only as a 
company which has been successful in the sale of lands, but a com- 
pany that has learned how to combine development efforts with 
its sales efforts. This is one of the secrets of the success of settlers 
in Marinette County, but back of this success is the fact that many 
years ago when the Skidmore Land Company purchased these great 
tracts of land in Marinette County they had first looked over every 
great tract of land available for settlement in the entire United 
States. They decided finally that the lands of Marinette County 
were absolutely the best opportunity to be found, and today they 
are able to offer you the advantage which their foresight provided. 
Their judgment regarding the lands of Marinette County has been 
proven correct. Inquiry shows there are more actual settlers 
taking up lands in Marinette County today three times over, than 
in any other county in any state in the Union. Your risk in taking 
up these lands of Marinette County is practically nothing, for the 
land is surrounded by valuable farms. We feel certain there will 
never be a better opportunity in land. 

WHY THIS OPPORTUNITY? Many ask this question: *'If 

there are such great agricultural 

opportunities in Marinette County, why was the land not taken up 
long ago?" You can answer this yourself by glancing back a few 
years. 

While other regions were giving to the farmer of the past their 
prairie lands, Marinette County, Wisconsin, was attracting the 
lumberman and the manufacturer. As the farmer passed by the 
Wisconsin timber regions, the lumberman was cutting away the 
forest. This same lumberman, to carry out his purpose, built 
towns, railroads, highways, schools, churches, and the factories 




18 



LANDOLOGY 19 



which he developed were in themselves the means of creating great 
home markets which still are able to absorb at topnotch prices the 
products of the farms of Marinette County. 

SETTLEMENT WAS DELAYED. This land of ours has been 

held from the market until 

the present time by the interests of the lumber companies which 
formerly owned it. It was not to their interest to have any part of 
it developed until they were through with it. They realized that 
with the coming of settlers the clearing of land might start fires 
which would burn millions of feet of valuable timber which they 
owned. They would not let these lands be opened for settlement 
until practically all of the first growth timber had been cut, and 
when fires for land clearing could not possibly spread from the 
settlers' lands and destroy valuable timber. 

A NEW DAY OF OPPORTUNITY. Today, the lumberman has 

£qj, ^j^g most part vanished 

from Upper Eastern Wisconsin. By the process of evolution the 
day of the farmer in Marinette County has arrived. The one great 
crop of timber taken from the lands is being replaced by great 
annual crops of farm products. The lumbering industry of upper 
Wisconsin made a few men immensely wealthy. The farming 
industry of upper Wisconsin will in turn make hundreds of people 
moderately wealthy. 

WHAT NATURE HAS DO NE FOR US. Consider for a moment 

■ how kind nature has 

been to Marinette County. The mantle of timber that for centuries 
covered this land was in itself a protection against wasteful farming 
methods such as have destroyed the best lands in many other parts 
of the country. Marinette County has been kept for you — a rich 
land of opportunity in the very heart of the highest civilization of 
this continent. In a circle roughly taking in the states of Iowa, 
Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and small 
parts of other states bordering on these states, there are 28,000,000 
people. These 28,000,000 people make up by all means, the greatest 
farmers' market in the world. Our location is just slightly north 
of the center of this circle. The center of population of the United 
States is in the state of Indiana. Marinette County is within eight 
hours' ride by train of the state of Indiana. In other words, we 
are practically at the door of the center of population in America. 

OUR S IXTY THOUSAND ACRES. We own today, sixty thous 

and acres of the best farming 

land in Wisconsin, the surface of which varies from level to gently 
rolling. The rolling land is for the most part the best farming land 
because it provides natural drainage. It is just as near good 
markets as any land that sells today for $100 per acre. It is better 




20 



LANDOLOGY 21 



land for it is virgin land, and there is no better soil to be found 
in the entire state of Wisconsin. It has fifty years the advantage 
of land that was settled fifty years ago, for it is that much farther 
away from the condition of the worn out New England farms. You 
can raise anything on the lands of Marinette County which can be 
raised on the $150 per acre lands elsewhere, and usually two or 
three times as much. 

LOCATION OF OUR LANDS, ^e own today practically all of 

the good available unimproved 

farm lands in Marinette County. Our tracts include lands in every 
township of the County, but the best lands available today are ir; 
the central, western, and northwestern parts of Marinette Count;. 
There are some lands available near to Marinette, but the bettei 
farm lands of the county are not in the vicinity of Marinette. 

The tracts of land which we are settling are traversed froi). 
north to south by the main line of the C, M. & St. P. Ry., and th. 
northwestern part of these lands are also given transportation ser- 
vice by the Soo Line. Several branches make up complete railroad 
service. The network of railroads in Marinette County gives the 
settler in this locality the markets of Marinette and the cil^ of 
Menominee, Mich., adjoining, which together have a population ,>f 
35,000; Milwaukee and Chicago to the south with a practically 
unlimited population; the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul to the 
west, and the copper and iron regions to the north. It is safe to say 
that at the present time at least one-third of all the food products 
raised in this locality are bought by the copper and iron countries at 
prices usually at least ten per cent above Chicago prices. The 
cities of Marinette and Menominee are in themselves capable of 
absorbing all of the crops raised in this locality. The stores, bank? 
and schools of the city of Marinette are metropolitan. It is a manu 
facturing center of great and growing importance, and with natural 
advantages which in less than ten years are almost certain to make- 
it the second or third city in the state of Wisconsin. 

With five great railroad systems forming a network in 
Marinette County, there is very little of our land that is more tha-i 
seven miles from a railroad shipping point, nor more than the sam«-' 
distance from a town. Our land overlooks a vast well settled 
country divided into some of the finest farms to be found in the 
state. The developed lands throughout our tracts, and immediately 
adjoining have already proven this to be the most productive land 
in the state. 

THE OLD TIMES AND THE NEW. You envy the farmers 

— who started like this 

years ago, and who have a competence now. But note how they 
started. Civilization was far away from them and they suffered 




22 



LANDOLOGY 23 

the hardships of the early pioneer. No schools were established 
and they built their churches in the wilderness. The cities and 
markets were distant. 

The man who comes here has all of their prospects and none 
of their disadvantages. Great railroads run by him; large cities 
and unlimited markets are right at his door. Schools and churches 
surround him; good neighbors are near by. He starts with cheap, 
virgin, uncleared land in the midst of a settled community. 

There is no other way for a man to get rich on a farm. 

To buy high-priced land one needs to get rich beforehand, and 
a man cannot do that by farm labor, nor by renting, nor by working 
for others. 

It is always the advance in land that gives the well-to-do 
farmer his competence ; and no one can doubt that here the advance 
is bound to be the greatest and quickest. 

BOUGHT RIGHT AND SOLD RIGHT. When a wholesaler 

buys a product which 

is to be resold to consumers, he is in duty bound to buy it at such 
a price that he can resell it to the consumer for a reasonable sum. 
The Skidmore Land Company bought these lands years ago from 
the lumber companies when those companies found it absolutely 
necessary to have additional capital to continue their lumber busi- 
ness. Land was very cheap at that time in tracts of two and three 
hundred thousand acres, but even under such circumstances the 
Skidmore Land Company bought these lands at what was generally 
considered a sacrifice price. The result is that today land is selling 
here at from $10 to $35 per acre which will produce acre for acre 
just as much or more than land selling in Illinois or Iowa at from 
$150 to $250 per acre. Land in other parts of Wisconsin no closer 
to the best markets of America, and with scarcely half the produc- 
ing capacity, bring $150 to $200 per acre. 

In a few years all the land here will be just as well settled and 
improved as the lands of southern Wisconsin. It will be worth 
just as much as the neighboring land, and that means from $40 to 
$80 per acre more than you pay for it. All that it lacks today is 
the clearing. A large part of this has been done for you in that 
the timber has been cut, and on most of these tracts the stumps 
have rotted for from eight to fifteen yearS; We did not put these 
lands on the market until the stumps had rotted sufficiently to begin 
clearing operations. 

The clearing cost will vary on different tracts of land, but for 
the most part it will not cost more than from five to fifteen dollars 
per acre, running somewhat above that figure on some of our best 
lands. On much of this land a man who does his own clearing can 
make excellent wages out of what he gets for the down timber, 






jSSBfeJ'W 










mmmmmsmiimmiiism 



Modern inventions such as stump-pullers and tractors have 
made land clearing simple and comparatively inexpensive. 




A one-man stump-puller which costs little, will 
clear any land to be found in Marinette County. 




26 



LANDOLOGY 27 

CLEARING NOT DIFFICULT. There was a time fifty years 

ago when it used to be said 

that it took a man a lifetime to clear eighty acres of timber land. 
There was a time when the mails of the United States were carried 
by men on horseback; today you can mail a letter and have it 
delivered the following day in a city five hundred miles distant at 
an expense of two cents. 

The same advance has been made in clearing land. It is noth- 
ing unusual today for settlers to move into Marinette County in the 
month of March and have forty acres ready for crops the same 
season. The grub-hoe methods of clearing land are today just as 
much behind modern methods as the cradle and reaper are behind 
the modern binder. A better knowledge of cheap modern land 
clearing machinery is today making farms out of the lands of 
Marinette County twice as fast, and at half the cost of ten years 
ago. 

THE COLLEGES HELP. Today the great Agricultural College 

of the state of Wisconsin is maintain- 
ing a land clearing department. This department several times 
each year organizes a special train and makes trips of six weeks or 
more throughout the cut-over lands giving demonstrations of the 
proper methods in land clearing. It has been found that the prob- 
lem of clearing land is more simple and less expensive than anyone 
had supposed. 

The one-man stump puller which can be bought at one-half the 
cost of a good horse will efficiently clear any land to be found in 
Marinette County. The machines with which one horse or a team 
are used can be operated somewhat faster, and such machines can 
be had at about the cost of a horse. 

CO-OPERATION IN CLEARING. Before we leave this subject 

we want you to thoroughly 

realize the fact that the land clearing bugaboo no longer exists. 
Co-operative methods are being carried out among the settlers by 
which a given neighborhood will buy a stump pulling machine, each 
sharing his part of the cost proportionately. In many cases all of 
the neighbors who jointly own the stump puller work together as 
a crew and clear land on first one farm and then another. When 
handled in this way the cost to each settler for clearing operations 
is greatly lessened. 

One thing which it is well to keep in mind is the fact that when 
stumps are once gone — they are gone forever. 

LOCATION OF OUR LANDS. Marinette County borders on 

Green Bay and the great Menom- 
inee River, and is on the forty-fifth parallel, being just half way 
between the Equator and the North Pole. 

There are five railroad lines serving the county — The C. & N. 



LANDOLOGY 29 

W., C, M. & St. P., W. & M., Soo Line, and Ann Arbor. Most of 
these roads pass through the county to the iron and copper coun- 
tries where a half million people are engaged in mining. 

Marinette has one of the best harbors on the Great Lakes, and 
because of this water competition the railroads are forced to give 
Marinette County points advantageous -freight rates. 

Boats operating between Chicago and Marinette make the trip 
in eighteen hours. 

Marinette County is in the upper eastern part of the state of 
Wisconsin. The county seat and principal city of Marinette County 
is Marinette, which is located upon the shore of Green Bay near 
Lake Michigan, and on the south side of the great Menominee River. 

The second largest place in Marinette County is the incorporat- 
ed city of Peshtigo with a population of about 2500. 

Some idea of the number of towns and cities in our county will 
be gained from a list of them : Marinette, Peshtigo, Coleman, 
Pound, Beaver, Loomis, Sunset, Harmony Corners, Bagley Jct.^ 
Porterfield, Miles, Kinsman, Goll, Wagner, McAllister, Packard, 
Crivitz, Konsted, Left Foot Lake, Middle Inlet, Peshtigo Harbor, 
Wausaukee, Cedarville, Intervale, Athelstane, Girard Jet., Phillips- 
burg, Dunbar, Amberg, Marek, Martindale, Beecher Lake, Holmes 
Jet., Pembine, Van Horn and Niagara. 

New towns and settlements are springing up each year, and in 
each case the lands in the vicinity of these tow^ns and settlements 
increase in price very rapidly. 

POPULATION. The population of Marinette County is in excess 

of 45,000, and is increasing steadily. Over half 

of these thrifty people are farmers or residents of the smaller 
settlements. A great many of them have been residents of this 
county but a very few years, coming here from great farming states 
such as Indiana, Illinois and Iowa. Within the past few years 
many of them have built up fine farms with modern buildings, and 
are very comfortable, and in every way well pleased with this 
country. 

The city of Marinette has a population of about 18,000. 

DESCRIPTION OF THE LAND- ^lie lands are almost exclusive- 

ly hardwood lands with an 

occasional scattering of pine. The uplands or rolling lands are large- 
ly a very rich clay loam yielding large crops. The level or lower 
lands are a lighter sandy loam, rich and easil}^ worked, and have 
a clay subsoil. This lighter soil has made Marinette County famouii 
as a potato growing district, and also for the growth of other root 
and garden products. 

A person standing on a high ridge on the shore of Green Bay 
can look northwest thirty-six miles in a direct line and see the higli 
land known as the Thunder Mountain country, and twenty miles 




30 



LANDOLOGY 31 

farther northwest is a still higher country known as the Silver 
Eange, where the mineral range crosses the state in a northeasterly 
and southwesterly direction. This lay of the land is advantageous 
to the county in several ways. First, it gives perfect drainage 
through two very large rivers, the Menominee and the Peshtigo, 
and their numerous branches; second, in providing a very mild 
climate, the climate in the lower land being about the same as 
northern Illinois. The force of the north and northwestern winds 
is broken by the high ranges, these winds passing high up over 
the valleys which escape the severe cold that is encountered on the 
north and west sides of the range of hills farther west in the state. 

SOILS. Marinette County soils vary from a clay loam on the 

uplands to a dark soil in the meadows. 

A soil expert from the state of Illinois, who recently examined 
the soil here, states that the chemical composition is very much the 
same as what is known as clay loam found in the corn belt of 
Illinois. The soil is of a different color, being generally a reddish 
clay loam and is richer in mineral contents than the Illinois or 
Iowa soil. 

Phosphorus and nitrogen are the two soil elements in which 
the farmer is most interested. Our soils are more than ordinarily 
well supplied with phosphorus, and are generally well supplied with 
nitrogen. Nitrogen however, is drawn upon more extensively than 
phosphorus in plant production, but its supply can always be 
restored where clover can be grown successfully, and Marinette 
County is the real Cloverland of America. As a matter of fact, 
the soils of Marinette County, because of their ability to produce 
clover, alfalfa, sweet clover, peas, soy beans, and other leguminous 
crops, with little trouble and expense, and in great quantities, will 
outlast the heavy black loam soils of other states for the reason 
that the soils are supplied with mineral contents and have the 
ability to produce the nitrogen needed in crop production. Nitrogen 
is provided by the growing of any legume, and when an additional 
supply is needed the turning under of a second cutting of clover 
gives the soil the full benefit of that crop. This does away with 
the need of any commercial fertilizer in Marinette County. 

CLIMATE. ^ ^^^ recently remarked, ''There are parts of the 

world where I would like to live three months in the 

year, other parts for six months, but since I have to live 365 days 
each year, give me Marinette County, Wisconsin." 

Why go thousands of miles away at a tremendous expense in 
search of health? Eight here in Upper Eastern Wisconsin you can 
find the most healthful and invigorating climate in the country. 
We have no extremes of weather. During the summer months we 
have long sunny days, not too warm, and the nights are cool and 
delightful. . 



LANDOLOGY 33 

Located along Green Ba^^ are many summer resorts, and 
hundreds of summer cottages. People from all parts of America 
spend their summer vacations here. 

The general outline of the country and lay of the land makes 
this a favored spot for those seeking health and comfort. 

THE TRUTH ABOUT OUR WINTER S. There is very little 

wind and no winter 

conditions which are not conducive to health and enjoyment. 

The snow comes generally in December and covers the ground 
with a warm blanket until the month of March. There are no 
January thaws such as kill clover in the states of Illinois and Iowa 
almost every year. We have just clear crisp sunshiny weather — 
the kind that gives one an appetite at almost any hour of the day. 

The snowfall is ordinarily from twelve to eighteen inches, or 
in other words, a sufficient amount to provide good sleighing for 
the heavy hauling of farm products, etc., during the winter 

It is the warm blanket of snow covering Marinette county dur- 
ing the winter that provides crop insurance for each coming year, 
and this same blanket of snow is one of the reasons why the north- 
west can be relied upon year after year for its full share of crop 
production. 

Never "a breath of malaria has swept this splendid northern 
country. The air is laden with the odor of hemlock, pine, cedar, 
spruce, balsam, and fir, borne on life-giving breezes from the Great 
Lakes. 

Come to an enjoyable winter climate where there are no 
blizzards, no January thaws, no winter rains, no sleet, slush or mud, 
no radical changes of temperature, but seventy days of reliable 
winter weather with sleigh-bells ringing, frost in the air, the farmer 
in the woods or on the road, the mercury varying from 15 to 30 
degrees above zero, and the crisp balmy air bringing abounding 
health, spirits and vigor to men and animals. 

There are days in the winter of course, when the thermometer 
registers below zero, but if you will watch temperature records you 
will be surprised to note that on such days the temperature in states 
like Illinois, Iowa, South Dakota, and Nebraska, is very apt to be 
lower than the temperature in Marinette County. 

Talk to any of the many Illinois, Iowa, or Indiana people now 
living here and they will tell you that the winters of Marinette 
County are much more comfortable than the winters in their home 
states. 

OUR HEALTH RECORD. Marinette County has practically 

■ led the health records of the state 

of Wisconsin for many years, and the fact that this record is almost 
continuous is an argument that should be of great importance to 
the new settlers thinking of locating in our county. 




YOU CAN 
MAKE MONEY 
WITH BEEF 
CATTLE IN 
MARINE? TE 
COUNTY. 





34 



LANDOLOGY 35 

NO CROP FAILURES. Marinette County is a country where 

the greatest returns are made by 
diversified farming. The fact that we have no tornadoes in 
summer, blizzards in the winter, or malaria in our water ; plenty of 
rainfall and no insect pests to destroy our crops, is the reason why 
a total crop failure in Marinette County has never been known. 

The average annual rainfall varies from 32 to 40 inches 
and a large part of it is distributed through the growing 
months. The well water is soft and free from alkali, and can always 
be obtained at a depth of from ten to thirty feet. 

FREE FROM FROST DAMAGE. Marinette County, Wiscon- 

sin, is ordinarily free from 

frost damage. During the last few years killing frosts were report- 
ed from many localities in this country doing immense damage to 
fruit, corn and garden crops. No loss of consequence was sustained 
in Marinette County. 

The long growing season of our locality is due to the fact that 
two-thirds of the border line of Marinette County is either on the 
great Menominee River, or Green Bay, which is a part of Lake 
Michigan. This location between Green Bay and the great Menom- 
inee River means that the county is practically surrounded by 
water. This, together Avith the low elevation, are the two causes 
underlying our very desirable climatic conditions. 

Another point to be taken into consideration is the fact that in 
a comparatively northern latitude plant life grows faster during 
the growing season than it does in more southern latitudes. For 
instance, during the heat of the summer corn will make a greater 
growth in Marinette County than it will during the same length of 
time in Illinois or Iowa. This is a provision of nature to provid^^ 
suitable plant life for middle northern latitudes, and it has long been 
recognized by expert agriculturists as one of the reasons why 
upper Wisconsin is develoj^ing into one of the greatest and most 
prosperous farm localities in America. 

OUR GROWING SEASON. Marinette County has 140 to 150 

days of growing weather. Northern 

Illinois, as far south as LaSalle and over to LaFayette, Indiana, has 
150 to 160 days of growing weather, but the farther north we go 
we find the days in summer longer, so the days in Marinette County 
are longer in the summer and correspondingly shorter in the win- 
ter than in Illinois or Indiana. 

In comparing the hours of sunshine with Springfield, Illinois, 
we have six days more sunshine during the growing season, and 
as plants breathe only when the sun shines, we have here practically 
the same number of hours of sunshine during the growing season 
as in Illinois, north of LaSalle; Lafayette, Indiana, or Des Moines, 
Iowa. 




36 



LANDOLOGY 37 

In some parts of upper Wisconsin, in the higher altitudes, we 
find that the average number of days of growing weather is only 
100. The United States Climatological map for 1910 shows 
150 days of growing weather for Marinette, while in some places 
farther south and west and within 100 miles there were only 94 
days between frosts. 

ROADS. Marinette County has a good auto road through every 

township, and in all of the townships there are a large 

number of cross roads usually on section lines which can be trav- 
ersed at all seasons of the year with the heaviest team loads of farm 
produce. It has been said that a good road is the key to almost 
every kind of rural progress. Wisconsin, according to government 
reports, stands third as a good road state, Indiana being first, and 
Ohio second. It has always been recognized that Marinette County 
is even more progressive in the matter of good roads than the 
southern part of the state. People who come to Marinette County 
from other states in the middle west to look for land always express 
surprise when they travel over the splendid macadam roads of this 
locality. 

EVERY SETTLER MUST HAVE A ROAD. One feature of the 

~ — ' Wisconsin state law 

which has proved of great benefit is the "force provision," whereby 
a group of free-holders of any town, by subscribing fifty per cent 
of the town's share of the estimated cost of improving roads, may 
thereby force the town to contribute the other fifty per cent. 

WATER. The year book of the Department of Agriculture, states 

that a pound loaf of bread requires two tons of water 

in the making; that is, that amount of water is required in raising 
the wheat, etc., entering into the making of a pound loaf of bread. 

The year book states further that a pound of beef requires 
from fifteen to twenty tons of water, and that a ton of hay takes 
500 tons of water from the soil before it is ready for cutting. 

The food required by an adult human being in one year repre- 
sents an acre of water five feet deep — one million and a half 
gallons. 

If these figures mean anything they mean that farmers ought 
to locate where there is ample rainfall and plenty of good pure 
water. Marinette County is known throughout the country for its 
supply of good pure water for man and beast. 

In Marinette County Avithin ten to thirty feet of the surface 
with a driven well you can get the purest spring water. This water is 
soft enough to use for washing clothes, and it is consequently not 
necessary to have a cistern. So much depends upon an unlimited 
supply of good pure water that this is something you surely must 
not overlook in choosing the location of a farm home. 




MARfNETTECO. 
HASJOCHEESE- 
FACTORIES AMD 
CREAMERIES. 

TOPNOTCH PRICES 
ARE PAID FOR H ILK 8. 
BUTTEI?FAT 




38 



LANDOLOGY 39 



MARKETS FOR EVERYTHING. In less than twenty-four 

hours, any produce raised in 

Marinette County can be placed in the great central market, 
Chicago, and we have a cheaper freight rate to Chicago than has 
Springfield, Illinois. These low freight rates are due to the fact 
that Marinette has one of the greatest harbors on Lake Michigan, 
and the railroads have to meet this water competition in making 
freight rates. 

Taking Chicago as a center you have within a radius of 300 
miles the greatest industrial development of this country — the 
center of the farming industry, the center of manufacturing, popu- 
lation, banking, best home markets, and the center of railroading. 
Marinette County lies within this circle, which makes up the great- 
est market district of America. 

HOME MARKET S ALWAYS BEST. You, of course, will rea- 

lize however, that the 

best market for any farming community is a local market, and the 
prices paid in local markets have a great deal to do with the value 
of farm lands. In reality, markets have more to do with the value 
of land from an agricultural standpoint, than soil or climatic condi- 
tions. It is not the number of bushels per acre that a farmer can 
raise so much as it is the net return per acre which he can realize 
from that crop. Official reports show the entire state of Wisconsin 
receives a greater net return per acre for its crops than any other 
state in the Union. 

If you have made a study of the advantages offered by the 
cut-over land districts where lumbering formerly flourished, you 
are already aware of the fact that the markets were first created by 
the towns built during the prosperous days of lumbering, and long 
before the settlers took up the land. 

The great cities of Marinette and Menominee, which are really 
one town, but are on opposite sides of the Menominee River, had a 
joint population of over 30,000 before the farming lands of this 
locality had been developed to any great extent. Previous to that 
time the food supply for all of these 30,000 people as well as the 
thousands of people in the" smaller towns and villages, had to be 
shipped in from the great central markets of Chicago and Milwau- 
kee. These home markets are today able to absorb all that is 
grown on the farm lands in this locality, and Chicago market prices 
less freight prevail at practically all- times at these home markets. 

AVOID LACK OF MARKETS. Without regard to the crop 

you raise, if the land on which 

you raise that crop is so located that it costs you more to market it 
than the crop is worth, the land is absolutely valueless. Thousands 
of farmers have in the past few years paid dearly for this informa- 




Scenes at Marinette County's Annual New Settlers' Picnic. 
This big event is attended by over 10,000 people each year. 




Note the fine live-stock and the many other evidences 
of steady prosperity on every hand in Marinette County. 



^P^H~9BB^ 



THREETONS 
PER ACRE FIRST 
CUTTING 




ALLOFTHESE a 
SCENESTAKEN 
ON MARINETTE 
COUNTY LANDS 
CLEARED LESS 
THAN FIVE 
YEARS AGO. 




42 



LANDOLOGY 43 



tion through the expensive experience of locating on the isolated 
lands of the far west and Canada. It is one thing to be able to 
raise something to sell, and it is quite another thing to sell it. 

No lands in any part of the world are more favored in the 
matter of good markets than those of Marinette County. With 
direct railway and water lines in every direction the products of 
this locality can within a few hours reach more than half the 
population of this country. 

Should the time ever come when the farm products raised in 
this county were in excess of the local needs we have immediately 
to the north of us more than half a million consumers in the copper 
and iron mining districts, who do not produce hardly any of their 
food. They pay higher prices than the Chicago market, and even 
today we are shipping great quantities of food products to this 
mining country because of the very high prices which the markets 
there are willing to pay. 

Marinette County is absolutely the nearest developed farming 
locality to this great northern market which stands ready at all 
times to take any food surplus which the Marinette County farmer 
may have to offer. 

CLOVER. It is a recognized fact today that there is something 
— lacking in any agricultural locality where clover can- 
not be grown successfully. It is recognized that a rotation of crops 
is necessary to keep up the fertility of any soil and produce the 
greatest profits each year. Clover is, by all odds, one of the most 
important crops in any system of rotation, and where clover cannot 
be grown successfully nothing can take its place except the contin- 
ued use of very expensive commercial fertilizers. The cost of 
commercial fertilizers has been constantly increasing every year, 
the price today being almost prohibitive to many farmers. 

There is no clover country to equal Marinette County anjrwhere 
between Boston Harbor and the Golden Gate. You can scatter 
clover seed from March to August in oats, peas, fodder corn, and 
even on the unbroken wild land among the brush, and never fail 
in getting a stand. 

THE GREAT NITROGEN GATHERER. The value of nitrogen 

contained in the air, if 

computed on the basis of the price paid per pound in commercial 
fertilizer.s would be about $11,000,000 for every acre of the earth's 
surface. Marinette County, Wisconsin, has the most favorable 
climatic conditions for the growth of clover, sweet clover, alfalfa, 
soy beans, peas, and all legume crops that have the faculty of taking 
this nitrogen from the air and storing it in the ground where the 
farmer will realize the benefit from it. 




44 



LANDOLOGY 45 



CLOVER THE BASIS OF AGRICULTURE. It is a well known 

fact today that 

where clover or other leguminous plants are grown, the fertility of 
the soil cannot only be maintained, but increased, and continued 
heavy crops are insured. It means that farmers increase their 
prosperity each year, and land increases steadily and rapidly in 
value. It really passes belief how the clovers and grasses grow in 
the strong, retentive, moist, and matchless soils of Marinette 
County. Clover not only never winterkills in this region, but it 
never "heaves out" or freezes out. It sleeps under the snow and 
comes out late in March or early in April green and fresh, a thing 
of beauty and a joy forever. It is the basis of the great success in 
agriculture in Marinette County. It will hold its own with timothy, 
red top, or any hay grass, reseeding itself, and like Tennyson's 
brook, "goes on forever." 

All of this may seem to be strange talk to the farmers of the 
older states where clover cannot be grown successfully, but it is as 
true as the Holy Book, and we want you to come and verify that 
fact for yourself. 

Clover, timothy and blue grass are found growing everywhere. 
Often through the wild lands one will find a growth of clover and 
blue grass that forms a dense heavy grassy carpet not excelled 
anywhere in America. The practical farmer will rapidly realize 
the importance of the ability of the soils of Marinette County to 
grow grasses, as it enables him easily and quickJy to transform his 
new land, even without first removing the stumps, into pastures 
that have no superior anywhere. Ideal pastures are easily obtained 
by stirring the soil slightly with a spring tooth or disc harrow and 
then sowing the seed. Nowhere have we ever seen such pastures 
as there are in Marinette County. With our pure spring-fed brooks 
and unlimited supply of the best water obtainable, our conditions 
are ideal for dairying and stock raising of any kind. All along 
the roads, or Avherever stock travel, and even scattered through the 
unimproved land, you will find a growth of blue grass, red clover, 
and white clover which will surprise you. 

CLOVER SEED A VALUAB LE CROP. ^^ many localities 

■ when a farmer desires 

to raise a cash crop he faces the problem of depleting the fertility 
of the soil. Clover seed is a great special and cash crop in 
Marinette County, and instead of depleting the fertility of the soil, 
it increases fertility. This includes the medium red and alsike 
varieties on the heavier soils, and the mammoth clover on the 
lighter soils. You can cut the first crop of clover for hay, getting a 
yield of from one and one-half to three tons per acre, and let the 
second crop go to seed and obtain a cash return of from $20 to $50 
per acre. 




46 



LANDOLOGY 47 

The state figures for 1916 credit Marinette County with a 
larger average clover seed production per acre than any other 
county in the state — four bushels. The price last year varied from 
$10 to $15 per bushel. 

LOCATE IN AN ALFALFA COUNTRY. 

Indications are that even before the dawn of modern civiliza- 
ti6n alfalfa was grown extensively, and made np a considerable part 
of the food, not only of animals, but of mankind. To this day it 
has continued to be a plant held in high esteem wherever the best 
agricultural methods are in use. The earliest English colonists 
brought it to this country, and therefore alfalfa is far from being 
new in the United States, but it is only within recent years that its 
culture in this country has been well understood. 

Alfalfa, wherever it is grown successfully, has made the land 
worth from $100 to $200 per acre. There are now, according to 
official reports, no less than 60,000 acres grown in the state of! 
Wisconsin, and Marinette County is one of the most successful 
alfalfa counties. 

DAIRYING. Once upon a time little was thought of farming the 

timber lands of Wisconsin. If rich gold mines had 

been found in Upper Wisconsin there would have been a tremendous 
rush to that section of the state. Today the dairy products of the 
great state of Wisconsin sell for more than all the gold mined in 
California, Nevada, Colorado and Alaska. The Wisconsin farmer 
who first began dairy farming opened up an industry in our state 
worth more to the world than the native of South Africa who dis- 
covered the great diamond fields of that part of the country. The 
diamond and gold mines yield but one crop — the dairy yields an 
annual crop of ever increasing value, and it is a form of farming 
which makes it possible to get larger and better yields of all crops 
each year. 

GRASS AND DAIRYING. The cheapest feed grown on any 
■ farm, and the feed that is producing 

the most beef, pork, mutton and milk, is grass. It is the natural 
crop of the soil and may be established and maintained at less 
expense than any other product that the land can produce. The 
grass crop produces more live-stock food, and is a greater factor in 
the maintenance of the live-stock industry of the entire country 
than all other feeds combined. 

Marinette County can truly be called the ''Grassland of 
America," because there is no locality where grass flourishes any 
better than it does here. It is because of the marvelous pastures 
which abound in this locality that Marinette County is already 
known far and wide as a great livestock locality. 




IS 



LANDOLOGY 49 

WISCONSIN' S DAIRYING PRE-EMINE NCE. In 1916 the to- 

— • tal dairy pro- 
ducts of the state of Wisconsin brought $110,242,382. Wisconsin 
has one-eighth of all the cows in the United States. This state 
produces half of the nation's cheese supply, and one-twelfth of all 
the butter produced in the country. Wisconsin leads in the produc- 
tion of creamery butter as well as in cheese. The cream industry 
of Wisconsin exceeds that of any other state, and the state also has 
the largest breeding centers of pure-bred dairy stock. 

In 1910 the Wisconsin Dairy and Food Department credited 
Marinette County with seven cheese factories, and in 1917 we had 
twenty-eight, a gain of twenty-one in six years. In 1910 Marinette 
County was credited by the state with two butter factories, and in 
1917 we had five, a gain of three. 

OUR GAIN IN DAIRYING. On the basis of our population no 

other county in the state has made 

such rapid gains in dairying as Marinette County. In 1909 Mari- 
nette County produced 323,248 pounds of cheese, and in 1915 
827,136 pounds, or almost a million pounds per year. In 1909 the 
amount received for cheese manufactured in Marinette County was 
$46,000. In 1915 the amount had risen to $114,000. In 1909 
Marinette County produced 85,760 pounds of butter, and in 1915 
the output had risen to 497,552 pounds. The amount received for 
butter in 1909 was $24,000 and in 1915 it was over $141,000. 

These are the latest figures available from the state, but it is a 
fact that the greatest development in dairying in Marinette County 
has taken place since 1915, and it is a safe estimate to say that the 
dairy output of the County has risen at least one-third since 1915. 
Figuring in milk and cream sold on milk routes and shipped to 
outside markets gives Marinette County an annual revenue now 
from its dairy cows of more than $500,000. 

HELPING SETTLERS TO START. While other states point to 

the coming greatness of the 

dairy industry in their domains, Wisconsin points to her past record 
and her brilliant present. The advantages of dairy farming in 
Marinette County are so many, and the returns are so large, and 
the future of the industry so well assured and so full of promise 
that young people who intend to farm cannot do better than to 
take up dairy farming in our county. 

Marinette County has the first successful co-operative associa- 
tion which has as its purpose the supplying of new settlers with 
good dairy cattle without any payment down being required at 
the time of purchase. The plan is so arranged that settlers pay 
for the cattle as the money is earned by their cows, the usual pay- 
ments being from three to five dollars per month per head. This 




ANY HOG WILL MAKE A PIG OF 
HiflSELF IN HARINETTE COUN 
TY PEAS. 



#: 



pmsiom 




50 



LANDOLOGY 51 

plan has been in operation in Marinette County for four years, and 
its success has caused many other localities to copy the plan. 

A new settler coming to Marinette County can fence in part of 
his land, get some dairy cattle through this credit association, or 
purchase them outright and they will find their own living during 
the summer with no expense to him. Whenever the sun shines 
clover and other grasses grow in abundance. 

On an average a good cow will make $100 per year for her 
owner. Here are a few examples of good profits received by Mari- 
nette County dairy farmers last year: One dairy farmer received 
for his June milk, a check for $484; one received for July $475; 
another received for July $300. One well known dairy farmer 
received for one month's milk last year the sum of $500, and there 
are a great number of farms in Marinette County where the 
monthly rate is from $200 up. 

BEEP CATTLE. Wisconsin is so well known for its leadership 

in dairy farming, and in the number of dairy 

cows to be found in the state that the great beef cattle industry of 
our state is somewhat overshadowed. It is a surprise to most 
people to know that while Wisconsin has about 1,750,000 dairy 
cows, that it also has about 1,250,000 beef cattle. It can be seen 
from this that the beef cattle industry is developing hand in hand 
with the dairy industry, and other forms of live-stock farming. 
Some of the greatest beef cattle show herds in America are owned 
in Wisconsin. 

Recently, one of the best authorities on the beef cattle business 
in America w^as called to the Wisconsin University to talk on the 
subject of producing beef in Wisconsin. He said the day had 
passed when the greatest corn regions of America could show the 
greatest profits in beef production. **The hope of the beef cattle 
industry of the future," said this authority, "lies in the cheap 
cut-over lands like those of Upper Wisconsin. I say this because 
it is the place which can produce grass and rough forage at the least 
expense which will in a few years show the greatest profits in beef 
production. On the thousands of acres of rich grass land in Upper 
Wisconsin enough beef can be produced profitably to feed a large 
part of the nation." 

BIG PROFITS IN HOG RAISING. America spends more money 

'" for pork than it does for 

education and religion. The first investment in hog raising is 
small and the pig is the quickest money maker on the farm. He 
will live and grow fat on waste products that other stock will not 
eat. He is ready for the market almost any time and w411 bring 
the top price if fat. He multiplies rapidly and if we only furnish 
him with good pasturage, forage crops, pure water and a little 




NO LOCALITY 

SURPASSES THE 
MAWNETTE COUNT ^ 
FORTRUCKGARDENING 




62 



LANDOLOGY 53 

concentrated feed, he will do tlie rest. By all odds, the most 
important question in hog raising is not the concentrated feed but 
the question of cheap forage and good pastures. 

The country where great quantities of forage can be produced 
at low cost is always an ideal hog-raising locality. These are the 
conditions which make Marinette County a country where hog 
raising can be made to show splendid profits. 

Cow peas and soy beans are more than equal to corn for 
feeding and fattening hogs and you can also ripen corn in Marinette 
County practically every year. Cow peas and soy beans are grown 
in Marinette County with remarkable success, and together with 
the corn which is raised here, they make up a very plentiful supply 
of the concentrates needed in finishing hogs. 

But greater than all other reasons for choosing Marinette 
County for hog raising, is the fact that we have no cholera, which 
makes this one of the best locations in America for the production 
of pork. 

WISCONSIN AS A HOG STATE. It will be a surprise to many 
— people to know that Wis- 
consin has an annual output of 325,000,000 pounds of dressed pork 
and that $35,000,000 worth of hogs are sold every year. When you 
get to looking up the subject, you find that in most parts of Wiscon- 
sin cows and hogs are big sources of income. Meat is one of the 
state's most valuable products with a yearly production of 4600 
car loads. There are 2,500,000 swine in Wisconsin, which means 
fourteen on the average for each farm. Enough pork is produced 
each year to feed all the people of the state for twenty-six months. 

PEAS FOR CANNING. Recent figures show that Wisconsin 

urn duces more canned peas than all 

other states combined. There is a reason for this : It is recognized 
that in producing peas for canning, there must be a combination of 
climate, soil, etc., especially suitable for the business. Throughout 
America in the pea canning industry, it is a recognized fact that 
Wisconsin has this combination, and that nowhere can such good 
peas for canning purposes be produced— and they can be produced 
at as low or lower cost here than elsewhere. This is only one of the 
many special cash crops which the Marinette County farmer can 
grow, and on which he can realize very high returns for the acreage 
and labor involved. 

Marinette County farmers can produce twenty bushels and 
upward of peas per acre which sell on the market at from $2.50 to 
$4 and upward per bushel. More new pea canneries are being 
started in Wisconsin than in all other states combined. At the 
present time, there is probably no other location more desirable 




54 



LANDOLOGY 55 

for the production of canning peas than Marinette County. The 
land is new and it is well known that peas do exceptionally well 
on new lands, and our climate is also especially well adapted for 
this business. 

MARKET FOR CANNING PRODUCTS. No matter how favor- 

able any locality may 

be for raising high-priced canned products, there is no money in 
the industry unless you have a suitable market. 

We have here one of the largest canning and preserving plants 
in America which gives the farmer a market right at his door. You 
will always find that the canning industry grows and finds its 
greatest developments where the climatic and soil conditions are 
suitable, and where factories exist so that the products for canning 
can be readily sold at good prices. 

Because we have both of these conditions here, Marinette 
County oflTers a special opportunity in the canning of peas, corn, 
all kinds of garden products, small fruits, etc. 

Among the products canned by the local factory are tomatoes, 
corn, peas, pork and beans, sauerkraut, beets, wax beans, string 
beans, pumpkins, squash, apples, strawberries, blueberries, rasp- 
berries and plums. This canning company also puts up cider, cider 
vinegar, mincemeat, catsup, sauces, chili sauce, preserves, and maple 
syrup. In addition to the large canning factory which pays high 
prices for all of these special crops, Marinette County has many 
pickling and salting stations, paying high prices for cucumbers for 
pickling, cauliflower, etc. 

„ Hand in hand with the canning industry goes the 
jKUilb. fruit raising industry. 

The Marinette County fruit lands can be bought, planted, and 
brought to bearing at less than the first cost of the irrigated lands 
of the West, and the Marinette County lands will bring a higher 
percentage of profit. The trouble has been that our farmers, 
because they can get such great quantities of wild fruit here, have 
never taken the culture of fruit seriously, and have never looked 
after their orchards with that intelligence which they have brought 
to bear in other departments of agriculture. 

FRUIT GROWS WILD HERE. ^ splendid source of income to 

: new settlers in Marinette County 

is the wild fruit. Each year thousands of quarts of raspberries, 
blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, gooseberries, cranberries, 
plums and currants are picked by the settlers for their own use and 
for sale. 

These fruits which are found wild throughout Marinette 
County bring high prices in the town markets, and are the means 
of a very helpful cash income to a great many of our settlers. 




These scenes give you an idea of how many of our set- 
tlers start. You can be very comfortable in a log house. 








LOG HOUSES ARE 
CHEAP AND COMFORTABie 





^T,. " '"=?%«fl»S. 




■^\'■■.^>'ri r-.rt r 



In three years most of our settlers have splendid modern 
farms with fine buildings and other good improvements. 



58 LANDOLOGY 

Some variety of wild berries can be picked on the unimproved 
lands of Marinette County at any time between the strawberry 
season in the spring and the first frost in the fall. In many cases 
families have made very large sums of money during the summer 
picking wild berries for the market. 

Marinette County orchardists can grow fruit and put it on 
the market in most cases for less than the far westerner has to pay 
for freight alone. 

TAME BERRIES A BIG BUSINESS. Our location on the shore 

of Lake Michigan is grad- 
ually making this a great country for raising strawberries, rasp- 
berries, blackberries, cherries and other small fruits. 

SHEEP, A GREAT OPPORTUNITY. For many years farmers 
^——-—^'———^^-^^—^—^-^■^^ on comparatively small 
tracts of land could not compete in sheep raising with the western 
ranchers who were able to have the benefit of the open range. The 
day of the open range has passed however, and today sheep can 
be raised profitably on practically any farm. The Wisconsin farmer 
no longer needs to fear the competition of the western sheepman, 
because he can raise sheep with greater profit than the ranchers 
of the West, due to the difference in freight rates in his favor in 
shipping to the great sheep markets of the country. 

Wisconsin is the greatest pure-bred sheep state in the Union. 
There are some other states which have more sheep, but it is in 
Wisconsin that the business has seen its greatest development in 
the formation of pure-bred herds. 

Sheep provide two pay days a year, one when the wool is sold, 
and one when the mutton is turned into meat. America needs 
nearly 750,000,000 pounds of wool annually for domestic consump- 
tion. Nearly two-thirds of this supply must be bought abroad 
despite the fact that we have the soil, climate, and all other neces- 
sary conditions to raise enough sheep i;o supply our country with 
all its wool and mutton, and also to export great quantities. The 
United States today has only fifty million sheep, whereas we should 
have one hundred and fifty million. 

In the past ten years prices for mutton and wool have advanced 
tremendously and now there are such remarkable profits possible 
in this industry that the number of sheep kept on farms in the 
United States will increase very rapidly. 

DO NOT DELAY. ^^ ^^^"^ ^ convention was held at Chicago to 

consider the adaptability of the cut-over lands 

of the Great Lakes region for profitable sheep production. Facts 
were brought out at that meeting showing no other locality in the 



LANDOLOGY 59 

United States offers such splendid opportunities in sheep farming 
at the present time as localities like Upper Wisconsin. The most 
experienced sheep men of the far West are turning to Upper Wis- 
consin, and sheep men of other localities are rapidly taking up 
large acreages of Upper Wisconsin land for sheep farming purposes. 
No place in the cut-over land region is better adapted to success 
with sheep than Marinette County, because in no locality will such 
a wealth of grass be found on the cheap, unimproved land. There 
is such a demand at this time for sheep land in Marinette County 
that parties interested in getting land for that purpose ought not 
to delay visiting us and making a selection before many of the best 
tracts have been sold. 

AN OFFICIAL STATEMENT. A Wisconsin state bulletin has 

the following to say in regard 

to raising sheep on the lands of Upper Wisconsin: "Conditions for 
growing healthy, vigorous sheep are very favorable in this section. 
There are thousands of acres of stump land in the northern and 
other counties that have become self-seeded to clover and timothy 
which afford the best grazing for sheep. In many locations not 
only can sheep be raised and fattened with profit on such land, but 
the sheep help to clear the land of small brush and other vegetation, 
thus clearing the way for more intensive agriculture." 

It takes less feed, and feed of less cost to produce a pound of 
mutton than any other meat produced on the farm. Sheep fit in 
well with other classes of livestock, especially with dairy cows. 
This industry also calls for only a small amount of capital for 
breeding stock and buildings. Sheep raising can be started on a 
small scale and the flocks be cared for by boys. A limited amount 
of labor is required as compared to other forms of livestock farm- 
ing. Experienced sheep men state absolutely no grain is needed 
for finishing sheep in Marinette County. 

An Upper Eastern Wisconsin farmer tells of his experience in 
raising sheep, and states the lambs he marketed were sent to market 
directly from pasture without any grain being fed for finishing. 
This farmer says, ''I sold them directly, taking them out of a clover 
pasture, and they brought me the top price over all lamb sales made 
in the market for that day. These lambs made an average of 70 
pounds each." 

FREIGHT RATES. The remarkable advantage which Marinette 

■ County has over many other sections in this 

country where sheep raising is engaged in extensively, in the matter 
of freight rates, can readily be understood. 

The difference in freight rates to the Chicago market in favor 
of Marinette County points as against points in western sheep states 
like Montana practically amounts to a subsidy in favor of farmers 




60 



LANDOLOGY 61 



who raise sheep in Marinette County. It is also true that the 
shrinkage in weight is much less in shipping sheep to market from 
Upper Wisconsin than from far western points. 

SHEEP BIG HELP IN CLEARING LAND. Wherever sheep are 

" pastured in Mari- 
nette County on unimproved land hlue grass, timothy and clover 
spring up rapidly. 

It is said that twenty-five sheep are the equal of one man in 
clearing land, and that they do a more thorough job, so that one- 
hundred sheep can be made to do the work of four hired men in 
clearing every season. 

One acre of pasture land will feed three to five sheep during 
the summer, and if the hay is allowed to mature this same acre will 
produce two and one-half to four tons of hay which will take care 
of eight to twelve sheep during the winter. 

Positively one of the greatest opportunities in Marinette 
County today is the production of mutton and wool on the low 
priced new farm lands to be had here. 

CORN. Marinette is on the forty-fifth parallel. There was a 

time when the county was considered by the uninformed 

as too far north for the profitable production of corn. This may 
be true of land farther west in the state in this same latitude, and 
in Minnesota and South Dakota, but here in Marinette County on 
Lake Michigan, with an elevation of only 560 feet, and 140 to 150 
days of growing weather as compared with 100 days farther west 
in Wisconsin corn is annually producing from 40 to 75 bushels per 
acre. The day temperature in Marinette County is about the same 
as northern Illinois, although of course the night temperature is 
somewhat cooler. This accounts for the heavy weight of grains 
produced in this climate, but retards the ripening of unacclimated 
corn. 

Our state university in the last ten years has developed varieties 
which entirely overcome this difficulty, and we produce about the 
same quality of corn as Southern Wisconsin or Northern Illinois. 
Any good corn farmer can grow all the corn he wants in Marinette 
County, Wis. 

At the 1916 state grain show held at Madison which was open 
to the competition of the entire state, a Marinette County farmer 
took first on Wisconsin No. 25 corn. In 1917 Marinette County 
farmers took first, second and third places in the same show on 
Wisconsin No. 25 corn, and took second place on Wisconsin No. 7 
corn. 

Corn raised for silage in Marinette County gives a weight per 
acre of 11 to 13 tons per acre. One farmer states that he filled two 
silos from fifteen acres. The silos were 12 by 37 and 12 by 32. In 
many localities it takes 10 to 12 acres of corn to fill one silo. 




62 



LANDOLOGY 63 

For years Wisconsin has produced more than twenty-five 
million bushels of corn annually, and each year leads all states of 
the Union with the highest average yield, usually attaining an 
average yield of forty bushels to the acre or more. Against this 
Illinois produces only about 27 bushels per acre on the average, 
Iowa 34, and Nebraska 15. These are of course, average yields and 
not the highest yields, and these figures demonstrate conclusively 
that Wisconsin is a real corn state. 

Without commercial fertilizers, Wisconsin boys have in a 
number of instances produced yields of one hundred bushels of corn 
per acre. A yield of 133 bushels of corn per acre is reported in 
one instance in Northeastern Wisconsin. 

PURE-BRED SEED CORN INDUSTRY In recent years pure- 

bred northern grown 

seed corn from Marinette County has been sold at top notch prices 
in practically all corn growing states of the middle west and east. 

POTATOES A GREAT CASH CROP. Potatoes constitute one- 

fourth of all the food con- 
sumed in this country. There is probably no single article of food 
w^hich, if the supply were cut off, would cause more suffering than 
if the potato crop of the world happened to be a complete failure 
for one season. 

The winter of 1916-17, when the retail price of potatoes went as 
high as $4 per bushel will long be remembered. During that winter 
the farmers of Marinette County, Wisconsin, who held their 
potatoes in storage sold at wholesale prices of as high as $3.50 per 
bushel. 

It is of course, not to be expected that the price of potatoes 
will be so high very often, but on the other hand there is very little 
likelihood of potatoes ever again selling as low as twenty-five cents 
per bushel from the farmers' fields. 

Wisconsin is one of the greatest states in the Union in the 
production of potatoes entering interstate commerce ; Marinette 
County is one of the greatest potato producing counties in Wiscon- 
sin. The total of the crop in Marinette County annually at the 
present time is estimated at $875,000, a gain of one hundred per 
cent in the past three years. So remarkable have been the profits 
made in growing potatoes by some farmers who have located here 
on new lands that the figures appear almost unbelievable. 

THE GREAT NEW POTATO MOVEMENT. Wisconsin has 

' lead the world in 

producing pure-bred potatoes, both for seed and table use. Not 
only does the state produce tremendous yields with no commercial 
fertilizers, but because of the production of pure-bred potato stock, 
a premium is paid for quality on practically all potatoes from the 
Badger State. 




64 



LANDOLOGY 65 

The great Wisconsin State Potato Show held at Marinette 
recently was recognized as the largest show of its kind ever held 
up to that time in this country. Buyers were present from all parts 
of the country and paid prices considerably above market quota- 
tions for potatoes raised in Upper Eastern Wisconsin. Marinette 
County has an active County Potato Growers' Association which is 
a branch of the state association. This county association is a 
co-operative body which not only is of great value in bettering the 
potato stock raised in the county, but is of great service to its 
members in getting the highest market price for their potatoes. 
The average production is considerably more than 125 bushels per 
acre, and where skill in selection of seed, cultivation and care of the 
crop is exercised, yields in excess of 200 and 300 bushels are very 
common. The cost of production depends upon the yield and labor 
saving devices used, but in ordinary cases is not more than the cost 
of producing an acre of corn in Illinois or Iowa. The modern 
potato grower in Marinette County handles his potato crop with 
horses and machinery just the same as corn is produced in this and 
other parts of the country. 

The most important fact in connection with this great crop is 
that it does especially well on new lands. To the man developing 
new land the potato is second in importance only to the dairy. In 
Marinette County the great bulk of the potato crop is grown by new 
settlers on new lands developed within the past few years. Mari- 
nette County's potato crop is practically as large as is grown in 
the entire state of Florida. 

Potatoes can be planted here among the stumps, if desired, and 
will produce enough in one season to pay for the clearing of the 
land, and in many cases also the cost of the land. 

A man can buy eighty acres of good land at $2,000, clear and 
plant twenty acres to potatoes and make enough on the crop in most 
seasons to pay for the eighty acres the first year. 

There are from one to three commercial potato warehouses in 
every farming town in the county, where the crop is purchased from 
the farmer at market prices, and in many cases at higher sums 
because of the quality of potatoes grown here. 

MODERN METHODS MAKE BIG MONEY. A man by the old 

fashioned method 

of using the hoe in raising potatoes, while his horses enjoy the 
pasture, could raise about five acres of potatoes a season, which 
are ordinarily worth about $700. A man with about $200 worth 
of machinery, a team, and possibly a little extra help at times can 
raise forty acres of potatoes worth about $4,000. A man with about 
$4,000 worth of machinery and some extra help at times can raise 
400 acres of potatoes, which, with a fair crop and a fair price would 
be worth about $40,000. 




66 



LANDOLOGY 67 

A POTATO SEED CENTER. Marinette County has become 

one of the greatest potato seed 

producing centers in the great potato state of Wisconsin, and our 
settlers are realizing the profits which they deserve for their work 
in the development of this great industry. 

CABBAGE. Ill the winter of 1916-17 cabbage was worth almost 

its weight in gold. There was a time when a price of 

$11 per ton for cabbage would create a sensation in any produce 
market. In the winter of 1917 however, the price of single heads of 
cabbage went as high as fifteen cents, and the price per ton was 
over $100. 

The average yield of cabbage in the United States is 4.9 tons 
per acre. Wisconsin leads all states in the production of cabbage 
with an average jdeld of nine tons per acre. 

Cabbage is rapidly becoming a great crop with Marinette 
County farmers. Buyers are here every fall to take all the cabbage 
raised at a good price, and you can get yields here of 
just as good quality and running just as heavy per acre on the 
lands being sold at $25 per acre as you can on the lands priced at 
$200 per acre in southern Wisconsin. 

PICKLES. Marinette County is a great pickle growing section, 

and this industry is growing greater every year. 

Pickles grown here are free of disease. The Chicago companies 
engaged in this business constantly seek to encourage the growing 
of more cucumbers in Marinette County, because it is here that they 
get a cucumber which is crisp and firm, and best suited for the 
business. The cucumber grows quickly, and no other crop from 
so small an outlay will produce such quick returns. You spend 
very little money for seed or work until you commence to pick up 
the money, and you are picking up money every day you are 
picking pickles. It is a crop that gives work to everybody. The 
children will earn $5 a day if you have a good crop of pickles for 
them to work in, and the work is easy and healthful. 

A good crop of pickles will return from $100 to $175 per acre. 
Many of our new settlers in recent seasons got from $100 to $150 
per acre for their pickles. Marinette County has eight commer- 
cial buying and pickling stations and several new stations are being 
built in the county at the present time. 

SUGAR BEETS. Marinette County is already widely known as 

a center for the growth of sugar beets. It 

pays to grow this crop on our lands. We have the third largest 
sugar beet factory in the United States as a market for beets grown 
here. The price paid for sugar beets is constantly increasing. In 
1917 the price was $8.00 per ton as a minimum, with a dollar more 




MARINETTE COUNTY 
SUGAR BEETS AND I 
THE^l.OOO.OOO 
FACTORY THAT 
BUYS THEM. 




68 



LANDOLOGY 69 

per ton for every cent per pound wholesale over eight cents. A 
fair yield of sugar beets per acre is twelve tons, which means about 
$75 to $100 per acre gross. 

There used to be an old fashioned notion among farmers that 
growing sugar beets exhausted the fertility of the soil. This notion 
has been disproved by the Federal Agricultural Department and 
other authorities. 

Today it is a well known fact that in localities where large 
quantities of sugar beets are grown the farmers are more prosperous 
than in other localities, and their soil is in better condition for 
cultivation and yields larger returns of all other crops. 

Sugar beets are a crop which in Marinette County have never 
been known to be a failure. 

The manager of the local sugar beet factory states that the 
soils of this locality are especially adapted for the culture of sugar 
beets, and that the percentage of sugar in the beets raised here is 
higher than in those raised in any other locality. 

In the growth of sugar beets Wisconsin makes the best showing 
of all the non-irrigated states, and when allowance is made for the 
cost of irrigation, the best showing of all. 

The last report of the Menominee River Bugar Company shows 
that the sum of $485,000 — nearly a half million — was paid out to 
farmers for beets in one year. A total of twenty-three carloads was 
received by the factory from the town of Loomis, in Marinette 
County. This town is settled almost entirely with people who have 
bought land from the Skidm^ere Land Co., in recent years. Five 
years ago not one carload of beets was shipped from this town of 
Loomis. This is only one indication of the great development of 
the beet growing industry in Marinette County. It is a cash crop 
here, second in importance only to the potato growing industry. 
You can make big money every year growing sugar beets in 
Marinette County. 

WHEAT. Wisconsin now ranks third in the United States in the 
production of wheat. The soil and climate of Mari- 
nette County are well adapted to the profitable raising of wheat of 
a superior quality, and with present high prices the acreage is being 
increased every year. 

OATS. Oats are one of the great grain crops of Marinette 

' County. They are a never failing crop in this locality, 

and instances are common in which Marinette County lands have 
yielded from 100 to 120 bushels per acre of this grain. The cool 
nights keep the grain headed out nearly twice as long before ripen- 
ing as in warmer countries. The result is a much heavier yield, 
often from two to ten pounds per bushel heavier than oats raised 
elsewhere. Yields of from 50 to 80 bushels per acre are common. 




70 



LANDOLOGY 71 

Among the sixteen states growing ten million bushels or more 
of oats during the past ten year period without irrigation, Wiscon- 
sin stands first. 
POULTRY. There is a saying, "Take care of the hens and the 

hens will take care of you." This is particularly 

true in Marinette County, and all that is required to he successful 
with poultry in this County is to take advantage of natural condi- 
tions and follow good business methods. Because of her markets, 
Marinette County offers great opportunities to the poultry raiser, 
and the price paid for eggs and poultry in the cities and towns in 
this locality is at all times practically equal to what they pay in 
cities like Chicago and Milwaukee. 

OUR SCHOOL OF AGRICULTURE. One of the institutions of 

— — ' great importance in the 

development of the farming lands of Marinette County is the county 
school of agriculture. With this agricultural school is combined a 
training school for teachers. The school not only offers the farmer 
and the farmers' sons and daughters the opportunity of studying 
such practical farm subjects as the more profitable types of farm 
animals, farm machinery, animal breeding, blacksmithing, fruits 
for Marinette County, concrete on the farm, farm engineering, 
corn judging, production of milk, milk testing, alfalfa culture, etc., 
but each year short courses are held for farmers and farmers' sons 
at places where it is most convenient for them to attend. 

In addition to its work in agriculture, this school also gives 
instruction in all common branches, and has a special domestic 
science department for farmers' wives and daughters. 

It is not alone in its courses of instruction at the school that 
this institution has been of great value to Marinette County farmers. 
The corps of instructors throughout the year hold meetings at 
rural schools and other advantageous places, and by this means 
have helped the new settlers to get started in the right forms of 
farming and by the right methods. 

The school loans forms for building silos and has been directly 
responsible for the construction of no less than two hundred silos 
in Marinette County. In addition to loaning these silo forms 
without charge to the settlers, the school will send one of its 
instructors, or a capable student to assist the farmer in building a 
silo. 

In addition to this County Agricultural School, Marinette 
County also has a state agricultural experiment farm. The County 
Agricultural School together with the state experiment farm in our 
county, and the State Agricultural School at Madison, are doing 
wonders for the farmers of Marinette County. The State Agricul- 
tural School at Madison is recognized as the greatest agricultural 
school in America, and its field men and experts in all departments 
visit Marinette County many times every year and are always ready 



I 




RYE AND BARLEY YIELD 
HEAVILY ON NEW LANDS 



"^^M^kk^ 






wmmmm^Mm^'w<m'^^^w^^'>.^mmMm>^jki:'t Ax-^t^tm^^ 



^^^^^^fe^i^i^^^^^ 




72 



LANDOLOGY 73 

and willing" to extend assistance in any way possible to the new 
settlers of our county. 

RURA L SCHOOLS SECOND TO NONE. If it is true that roads 

are a key to progress 

in any given locality, it is probably more true that country schools 
are a key to the degree of civilization in any given locality. No 
matter where you go in America you will not find better country 
schools on the average than you will in Marinette County — not even 
in such older settled states as Illinois, Iowa and Ohio. Marinette 
County rural schools do much special work in the teaching and 
promotion of agriculture. Every school in the county does special 
work in agriculture as it relates to the development of Marinette 
County. In some of the schools classes in stock judging are taken 
once or twice a week to farms in the neighborhood where they are 
taught stock judging. Fifteen of the rural schools of the county 
possess their own Babcock milk testers, and test milk for the 
farmers in the district free of charge. In many other schools corn 
seed is tested for the farmers free of charge. 

Wisconsin's policy in regard to both the construction of rural 
schools and the training which takes place in the rural schools has 
always been recognized as far in the lead of most other states in the 
Union. This policy is carried into effect by withholding state aid 
from any school which will not keep up with the march of progress. 

There are five rural high schools in Marinette County in addi- 
tion to the city high schools. 

SILOS. Wisconsin has 60,000 silos, which is several times more 

than the number to be found in any other state in the 

Union. The silo has been the 'Svatchtower of prosperity," in 
Wisconsin and there is no question but what it accounts in a large 
measure for the remarkable success of farming in our state. No 
county is more progressive in building silos than Marinette, and 
each year the number built is larger. In older settled parts of our 
county many farms already have two silos, and there are large 
districts where at least one silo is found on every farm. It is 
estimated that Marinette County now has well over 500 silos and 
150 or more are being put up each year. 

HOW OUR SETTLERS BEGIN. The farmer who comes here 

with considerable means has 

the advantage of course ; he can get started more quickly ; he can 
hire part of his land cleared. To such men the start is not difficult, 
but the man with a little money and plenty of pluck can get along 
very well. He can build his first home of logs taken from his land 
at a cost of from $5 to $50, and it will be a comfortable home. Fuel 
and fence posts can be had on his land for the labor of cutting them. 
One can raise plenty of food right from the start for the livestock 




HUNDREDS VISIT 
MARINETTE COUNTY 
EVERY YEAR TO 
CAMP on THE 
BEAUTIFUL LAKES 
AND STREAMS.AND 
ENJOY THE FISHING 
AND HUNTING, 




74 



LANDOLOGY 75 

he may have. Pasturage is good from April 10 until November 15, 
and in many years far into the month of December. 

The man who wants to earn money can find plenty of opportun- 
ities — more chances than there are men to fill them. He can work 
at lumbering in the winter, or in the factories of the towns. The 
opportunities are many and the wages are good. In summer, help 
is employed on a great number of the older farms, and many of the 
new settlers with plenty of means engage help in clearing their 
lands. 

THE NIMROD'S PARADISE. I^ J^^^ are a lover of the rod and 

gun, come to Marinette County. 

Its streams abound with trout, pickerel, bass, pike and muskellunge. 
The streams are spring-fed, clear and cool, and on an idle day you 
cannot select a more inviting pastime than to take your rod or 
gun and hike to the nearest stream or stretch of woods. 

Marinette County is one of the greatest deer hunting localities 
in the state of Wisconsin, and every year hundreds of sportsmen 
from Chicago and other localities come here for the deer hunting. 

Due to a wise policy of game protection the deer are on the 
increase in Marinette County despite the large number bagged 
every year during the deer season. Practically every settler gets 
his deer in Marinette County every fall. 

Other animals, such as bear, fox, coon, rabbit and muskrat, are 
also quite numerous, and a good income can be made during the 
winter season in trapping these animals. 

Ducks are also plentiful during the migrating season in the 
fall. On the numerous smaller lakes in the county, and on Green 
Bay thousands of ducks and geese spend from one to four weeks 
before they fly south for the winter. 

Only a short trip from Marinette by either train or wagon will 
place you on some of the finest duck-hunting grounds in America. 

WATER POWER. The days of coal and steam are passing so 

far as power for industrial purposes is con> 

cerned. The industrial power of the future is electrical power 
generated from water power. That is why Marinette County is 
destined to become a great manufacturing center. The water 
power of Marinette County is practically unlimited. There are two 
tremendous water power developments in this locality already, and 
several smaller ones, but there are many other very good water 
powers still to be developed. 

One great Marinette County water power is at this time 
furnishing power not only for factories in our own county, but for 
the city street car and interurban systems of large cities immediate- 
ly south of us such as Green Bay, Kaukauna, and Manitowoc. 

Some idea of the possibilities of great Increase in our popula- 
tion can be gained from the fact that probably as many people will 




MARINETTE COUNT V 
HAS MODERN RURAL 
SCHOOLS EQUAL TO 
THOSE OFANYOTHER 
.SFTTI ED LOCALITY. 



AUTO-SmR CONSOLIDATED 
1^. SCHOOLS 





M 



76 



LANDOLOGY 77 

be drawn to Marinette County to make their homes as the result 
of our water power development as will come because of our great 
agricultural opportunities. 

SUCCESS THROUGH CO-OPERATION. We see a great deal in 

— the farm papers at the 
present time in regard to co-operation. Unfortunately in older 
settled farming communities it is difficult to bring about any real 
co-operation. In newer farming localities like Marinette County 
however, the new settlers are naturally drawn together, and the 
result is very effective co-operation in farming work, social endeav- 
ors, etc. 

In many parts of our county the Grange organizations have 
very large memberships, and are very active in agricultural affairs. 
The annual state Grange meeting was held here recently, and the 
delegates were so well pleased with Marinette County that they 
voted to meet here again. 

All farmers' organizations flourish in Marinette County because 
we have a very progressive class of farmers. If you are progressive 
and believe in co-operation among farmers you ought to make your 
home in Marinette County. 

CREDIT TO FARMERS. Everyone knows that interest rates 

even in some of the older settled parts 

of Missouri and Kansas are often as high as eleven and twelve per 
cent. It is usually true that in newly settled localities the interest 
rate is higher than in the older settled farming localities. 
Fortunately this is not true of Marinette County The normal rate 
of interest on loans to farmers here is six per cent. This is due to 
a large extent, to the fact that Marinette County has a State Land 
Mortgage Association. This association makes a business of loan- 
ing funds to farmers for the improvement of their farms. This 
association was formed under Wisconsin's Farm Credit Law, which 
was in effect long before the Federal Government took action on 
this important matter. 

Credit to farmers in the purchase of dairy cows, pedigree grain, 
grass and potato seed is very liberal, and has been told of in detail 
in preceding chapters of this book. 

LISTEN. You can always buy land cheaper of a large land com- 

pany than you can of an individual. Land companies 

buy in large tracts at low prices, and when you buy land of an 
individual you pay two profits, the land company's profit, for they 
originally sold the land, and the individual's profit, but you can 
buy better land at a lower price of us than you can buy of any 
other land company, for the reason that our lands have been held 
by us for a number of years and were not purchased in recent years 
at present land prices. We bought them right and are giving you 
the benefit of our foresight and experience by -selling them right. 




78 



LANDOLOGY 79 

We are this year offering lands never before placed on the 
market. On any new proposition did you ever notice that men 
were a great deal like a flock of sheep ? They will chase each other 
round in circles and huddle together, but just as soon as one jumps 
over the fence the balance follow. Don't be the last one over the 
fence in buying these lands. 

COME AND SEE. ^^ want you to come and see Marinette 

County, Wisconsin. If you wish to make a 

change and want the best opportunity you will be one of them. 
There are chances to make money in other localities, but the chances 
here are double those of any other locality we know of. 

We hereby extend a special invitation to you to visit Marinette 
County, Wisconsin, that we may have the pleasure of taking you 
over our county and showing you the many beautiful homes you 
find illustrated in this book; we want you to talk with the owners 
of these homes, and let them tell you just how they acquired them, 
just what they are doing, and just what any ordinary man can do 
under ordinary circumstances. 

CONFIDENCE. We are confident that you are actually interested 

in knowing the truth in regard to Marinette 

County, "Wisconsin, and we trust that you will reciprocate by having 
enough confidence in us so that you will take no one else's word 
for any statement you find in this volume, but that you will investi- 
gate the conditions personally. 

RELIABILITY. The Skidmore Land Co. is one of the oldest and 

most reliable land companies in the business to- 
day having been in the general colonization business for 18 years, 
and having been one of the great forces for making Marinette Coun- 
ty, Wisconsin, what it is today, and they are proud of the hundreds 
of farmers they have helped to own their homes. You can talk to 
these farmers and learn what they think of the company. We also 
refer you by permission to the Stephenson National Bank, the 
Farmers' Savings & Trust Co., the First National Bank, and the 
Farmers' & Merchants' Bank, all of Marinette, Wis. 

Your decision is of vast importance to you. Don't make a 
change until you see Marinette County and see what it offers you. 
We know that a man who is willing to work can make more money 
in ten years on a farm of his own in this section than on any other 
farm land or in any other employment. 

The opportunities for industrial development and the possibili- 
ties of agriculture for Marinette County, Wisconsin, challenge the 
imagination. 

TITLE TO OUR LANDS ABSOLUTELY GOOD. Before we put 

~" our money into 

our lands we had the abstracts to all lands examined and passed on 



80 LANDOLOGY 



by the most competent attorneys in this state, who pronounced the 
titles absolutely good, and we give warranty deeds and guarantee 
the title to all our lands. 

PRICES AND TERMS OF SALE. Prices from $10 to $35 per 

— acre. One-third cash, the 

balance in three or five equal annual payments drawing 6 per cent 
interest ; but the purchaser has the privilege of paying the deferred 
payments (or any part of them) before they are due, so as to save 
interest. 

RAILROAD FARE REFUNDED TO PURCHASERS . 

Write us when you can make the trip to Marinette County and 
we will arrange your trip with as little expense to you as possible. 
We will write you fully as to best route to take, time to leave, etc., 
and when you buy land we credit your railroad fare. 

We have offices at Marinette, Wis., and Wausaukee, Wis., both 
Marinette County towns. You can, if coming by way of Chicago, 
take either the C, M. & St. P. R. R. or the C. & N. W. R. R. The 
railroad fare from Chicago to Marinette is $6.29. In most cases it 
is better to go directly to our office at Wausaukee, taking the C, M. 
& St. P. R. R. from Chicago, the fare being $6.26. By going directly 
to Wausaukee you can save time, because our Wausaukee office is 
nearer to the lands open to settlement. 

We have tried to answer honestly every question that might 
occur to the prospective land buyer, but it will be a pleasure to us 
to write you should you want any additional information. We 
have enough confidence in you to be glad to make this effort to give 
you the truth in regard to the land situation, and we trust that you 
will return the favor by honestly investigating our properties 
personally. Your opportunity is today, and it may never come 
again. Read every word in this book now, and let us prove it to 
you by showing you the land tomorrow. 



> \ THIS IS f\LLTHELf\ND 
^ XTHEREISONTHIS OLDEf\RTH!^ 
^^^ ^f\ND THERE IS NO MORE f 
/BEING Mf\NUFPiCTURED\^ 

SKIDMORE LAND CO. 

GOOD FARM LANDS MARINETTE, WIS, 





The Good Luck Clover Lands 
Here in MarfTiette County, Wis., 
Where Farmers Grow Rich, 



h 




1 Eastern Wisconsin, Bordering on Green 
Rich location with its low elevation, gives 
1 equal to Central Illinois, Indiana or Iowa, 
asportation. Marinette County is less than 
by railroad and less than 1 4 hours by boat. 
ity Lands cannot be compared wiih other 



b 




^-T; ^^— ^-*;~T 






The Good Luck Clover Lands 
Here in Marinette County, Wis., 
Where Farmers GrowJ^ch. 




h 



Note the location of Marinette County m Eastern Wisconsin, Bordering on Green 
Bay and the great Menominee River^ wliich location with its low elevation, givea 
Marinette County, Wis., a climate condition equal to Central liiinois, Indiana or Iowa. 
Note the Railroad facilitieg and water transportation. Marinette County is less than 
250 miles from Chicago, only seven hours by railroad and less than 14 hours by boat. 
Because of their location, Marinette County Lands cannot be compared wiih other 
lands that may be for (ale at the same price ~ 



I 



